How-To: Remotely Control Your Mac Over the Internet

I previously wrote an article on how to stream your data from a Time Capsule and local computer over the Internet. After figuring out the basics of networking, I moved onto wanting to control my media center computer remotely. Below I’ve outlined the steps to set up remotely controlling your home computer over the Internet.

Some Things to Note

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This tutorial assumes you’re using a Mac on your home network with screen-sharing turned on, that it’s powered on most of the time, and that it has a static IP address (the tutorial explains how to do each of these things).

You must have an external static IP address (my broadband Internet came with that).

Determine your External IP Address

We’re going to be referring back to this number a lot. Make sure you write it down.

Set Your Computer to a Static IP Address

In the left hand menu, select the “Ethernet” or “Airport” device. (Select whichever one you are using to connect to your network, it will have a green ball next to it and say “Connected.”)

Click “Advanced”

Click the “TCIP/IP” tab

Write down the number next to “IPV4 Address” (from now on we’ll refer to this as your “Internal IP Address”)

In the “Configure IPV4” pull down menu, select “Using DHCP with Manual address”

The box next to “IPV4 Address” will default to all zeros. Type in the number we wrote down in step 6 (your internal IP Address)

Close System Preferences

Set Up Screen-sharing on Your Computer

Launch System Preferences: Applications ? System Preferences

Under the “Internet & Network” section, click on the “Sharing” icon

Select the checkbox next to “Remote Management”

A pop up will come up with a ton of checkboxes asking you what you would like to do when remotely managing. I checked everything and clicked “OK.”

Select the “Computer Settings” button

Check the box next to “VNC users may control screen with password” and enter a password in the text box next door. Click “OK” after you’ve entered a password.

Close System Preferences

Forward Port 5900

Port 5900 is the Apple VNC port. We need to forward from our external IP address to the computer that’s sharing files on our internal network.

Every router is different, so below I’ve outlined the basic steps. You’re going to have to consult your router’s documentation for exact instructions. Portfoward.com has documentation for a lot of routers and I also wrote an article for the Airport Extreme.

Log into your router. If you’ve left the router with the default configuration, launch a web browser and enter “192.168.1.1” (most routers default to this IP). If this doesn’t work, consult your router’s manual for directions on how to get to the configuration panel.

Once you’re logged into your router, find the port forwarding section (mine was under the “Applications and Gaming” tab).

Forward both the TCP and UDP ports from the router to your file sharing computer’s IP Address.

Connect to your Computer Over the Internet

Launch Chicken of the VNC. If you are currently on your home network (the network with the computer that has the screen we want to control) and did everything correctly by default, you should see the name of the computer you are trying to connect. All you have to do is type in the password we set earlier and click “Connect.”

To add a new location, click the small plus arrow in the bottom left-hand corner of the screen.

A pop-up window will ask you to name the location. Name it whatever you like.

In the “Host” box, replace the phrase “localhost” with the external IP address we determined earlier

In the “Password” box, type in the password we set earlier and select the “Remember Password” checkbox.

Click “Connect.” If you did everything correctly, you should be able to control your computer.

Optional Step: Forward a Domain Name to Your External IP Address

Remembering a domain name is much easier than remembering an IP address, so for this optional step we’re going to forward a domain name to our External IP address that we wrote down earlier. Then when we go to the “Connect to Server,” you can enter in the domain name instead of the IP address.

This guide is for GoDaddy, but the same basic procedure should apply for other domain registrars.